DINZ Design Business Invitation

DINZ Design Business Invitation

Exclusive to DINZ members – an ongoing support programme to businesses.

Design Business – WHK Business Clubs

Programme available to DINZ members only.

date: Thursday 26th March 2009

time: 4pm – 6pm

venue: WHK Gosling Chapman, Level 4, 51-53 Shortland Street, Auckland CBD

class size: 5-10 carefully selected business owners

membership fee: Introductory membership offer 4 months for the price of three - $360+gst

applications close: 10th March 2009

rsvp: designer@dinz.org.nz

It’s always better when you’re not alone

The Business Club will address the strategic issues that have a big impact on overall profitability and business sustainability, in a peer to peer group of like minded individuals. With support from your expert facilitator you will collectively solve problems and find a pathway through the challenges ahead.

The Business Clubs facilitated by WHK will address three common obstacles to growing a successful design business:

1. Working ‘on’ and not ‘in’ the business

Business owners spend most of their time working ‘hands on’ in the business and insufficient time stepping back from day to day operations and looking at the big picture.

2. It’s lonely at the top

Who do you call on when you need a sounding board or someone to talk to about business? Your team probably like to see you as a strong and decisive leader. A network of trusted business colleagues can be a real asset.

3. Technical excellence is not the same as business excellence

Many business owners have come up through the ranks and now find themselves responsible for managing cashflow and contracts, planning not just their own day but the whole future of the business.

Each Business Club is composed of 5-10 carefully selected business owners who are confronted with management and marketing challenges to achieve practical outcomes that can be implemented each month. Members will develop an ongoing relationship, meeting once a month for a two hour session facilitated by a WHK Business Growth advisor.

The first meeting (26 March) - Identifying your target market

We will address the perennial marketing dilemma of how to get the biggest bang for your buck:

• What can you do to ensure your limited marketing budget is being well spent; that, as a client, you’re getting value for money?

• What steps can you take to avoid wasting money on marketing activities that fail to generate a satisfactory return on your investment?

The group will explore opportunities you may have overlooked or could be paying more attention to. In preparation for this meeting each club member will complete a short questionnaire and review their recent marketing activities as background for the facilitator.

Subsequent meetings

The Business Club will reconvene each month to address different topics. The topics are decided by the members in conjunction with the facilitator, at the previous meeting. A small amount of research or preparation may be required for each meeting.

Your facilitator: Jo Patterson
Jo has 15 years sales and marketing management experience. Prior to joining the team she was Sales and Marketing Manager at The ICEHOUSE. While with The ICEHOUSE Jo launched and marketed all business growth programmes, including: 3-2-1 Go Global, the Owner Managers Programme, Agribusiness and Better By Design. Jo is WHK’s marketing strategist and a long time member of the New Zealand Marketing Association.

For more information on other WHK Business Growth Fully Funded Training Programmes – click here

BIZ Start series designed for final year design students and recent graduates
DINZ Business Series
DINZ High Impact Programme (the next step up from the DINZ Business Series)
 

The WHK Business Growth Training series briefly outlines several business development initiatives designed for members of the Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ) for 2009.

The initiatives outlined are a combination of fully funded training programmes (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) and WHK Business Growth services (also Silver Sponsors of DINZ).

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Designers Institute of New Zealand, www.dinz.org.nz

DINZ Mission: to have professional designers valued and rewarded for the contribution they make to the economic, cultural and social growth of New Zealand.

Platinum Sponsors – Auckland City Council, Auckland Museum, Base Two, Designworks, Dock Street Group, Dulux, GardyneHOLT, Ministry for the Environment, ProDesign, Studio Alexander, Terabyte, The Pond

Gold Sponsors – Better by Design, Clendons, ECC Lighting, Forbo, Otago Institute of Design, Panprint, Wattyl, Winstone Wallboards

Silver Sponsors – Aesthetics Lighting, Jasmax, Jacobsen Creative Surfaces, The Laminex Group, Mokum Textiles, WHK Business Growth

ends

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